Board of Regents Chair to address Southeastern graduates

HAMMOND – Robert W. Levy, the current chair of the Louisiana Board of Regents, will serve as commencement speaker at Southeastern Louisiana University’s fall graduation ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 10.Scheduled at 10 a.m. at the University Center, the ceremony will recognize approximately 1,290 students receiving bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees.The commencement ceremony will feature the introduction of this year’s class of “Golden Graduates,” members of the Class of 1961 and previous years, who will lead the new graduates into the University Center dressed in golden academic regalia.Levy, a resident of Ruston, is currently serving his fourth six-year term as district attorney for the Third Judicial District, which covers Lincoln and Union parishes. He was appointed in 2001 to the 15-member Board of Regents, a state agency charged with coordinating the efforts of Louisiana’s 34 public higher education institutions and serves as the state liaison to Louisiana’s other accredited independent colleges and universities. The board sets important statewide policies and standards including minimum admissions requirements as well as benchmarks and targets for the GRAD Act – Louisiana’s signature higher education reform policy. A graduate of Nicholls State University, he earned his law degree from the LSU School of Law. Levy serves as a Regents’ representative to the Blue Ribbon Commission for Educational Excellence and to the Louisiana High School Redesign Commission. A member of the Board of Directors of Louisiana Next Horizon and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, he is the immediate past chairman of the Council for a Better Louisiana.Levy is the past president of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and served six years on the Judicial Council of the Louisiana Supreme Court. He is a member of the Louisiana Law Institute Criminal Procedure Committee. He founded and serves as chairman of the board of the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Truancy Assessment and Service Center. He also founded and serves as chairman of the Pine Hills Child Advocacy Center Inc. and the Pine Hills Sexual Assault Center.